Tucked away in the delightful German
town of Regensburg midway between Nuremberg and Munich is the wonderful paddle
tug Ruthof / Ersekcsanad now open as a museum ship. Ruthof was built for service on the River Danube and was
capable of towing several barges either alongside or astern. During the Second
World War on 20th June 1944
she struck a mine and sank near Ersekcsanad with the loss of five lives. She remained
under water for the following twelve years, was then raised, refurbished and
finally
returned to service under the new name of Ersekcsanad in 1957. She
continued to operate until 1975 when she was withdrawn and laid up in
Budapest. Four years later she was bought by her current owners, moved to
Regensburg in 1980 and opened to the public three years after that.

Two contrasting views of the Ruthof
separated by eighty years. The first was taken at her commissioning in 1923
when a number of distinguished guests gathered aboard a rather precarious
looking barge for the ceremony. The second was taken in November 2004 at
Regensburg. The cabin aft of the paddle wheel on the port sponson houses the
galley, still with the original tiled deck and many fittings, and between this and the paddle
wheel is a lead lined cool room used for storing perishables. The outside of
this was kept cool by the wash of river water from the rotating paddle wheel.

The bridge is large and has cabs on the
wings of a sort once thought to be quite fashionable and much favoured by
captains who had an aversion to getting wet when manoeuvring their ship in rain.

Below decks the crew accommodation forward
and aft has been stripped out with the areas converted into museum spaces with a
wonderful collection of models of Danube tugs and other vessels.

Ruthof has two boilers one forward
and one aft of the machinery. Originally coal-fired these were subsequently
converted to oil.

.

There is a huge compound reciprocating
steam engine which looks as though it is just waiting for the steam to be raised.

The manoeuvring position is on the lower
deck in a similar position to that on Kingswear Castle and, as you can see, the pistons have
tail rods which lead out of the
rear end of the cylinders. These have the advantage of giving the pistons better
support and reduce the barrelling effect which the piston's weight sliding up
and down otherwise causes on the bottoms of the cylinders of a diagonal engine.

Looking down on the engine.

Given the shallow draft of the Ruthof
the paddle wheels are of modest diameter and, rather like the Dresden paddlers,
look a bit lost inside the much larger paddle boxes . The feathering
mechanism, which can be seen in the foreground, is on the inboard side of the
wheels.

A view looking aft along the deck with one
of the the winches used for the towing wires in the foreground and a
set of gigantic towing bits on the right.

Looking forward from the midships
accommodation on the port side. The door to the paddle wheel is open on the left and
one of the
towing wire winches is in the distance forward. The extension spindle for
connecting the
mechanism to the bridge for the captain's use can be seen on the right.

Both funnels are counterbalanced with
weights and can be hauled down by turning the hand operated winch which can be
seen at the aft end of the bridge connected to the funnel weight by wire. Also just to the right of the porthole you can see a little flap in
the hull. This was used for ejecting ash straight from the end of the stoker's
shovel out of the stokehold and overboard into the river.

The Regensburg Maritime Museum also
owns a second and occasionally operational Danube tug, the propeller driven,
Diesel powered Freudenau. She makes forays up and down the Danube from
time to time and last summer visited Budapest. Regensburg itself is a
charming town with its quaint old quarter and cathedral and the Ruthof / Ersekcsanad (pictured above)
is just stunning. Beautifully maintained in excellent condition by a largely volunteer labour
force she is a real gem amongst European preserved paddle steamers. There is a
feeling of size and weight and purposefulness about her and a visit is much to
be recommended. The two tugs are open every day from April to October and by
arrangement in the winter.